The The Scorpion King(Mathyaus)
Mathayus (The Scorpion King) Mathyaus, The Scorpion King Dwayne (The Rock) Johnsonis an Akkadian mercenary who is hired to kill the king's sorcerer, He is betrayed by his client's son and witnesses his brother's death. With the aid of Arpid, a horse thief, he escapes a fatal death and vows revenge for his brother. He travels to Gomorrah with Arpid to break in and kill Memnon, but fails and comes across the sorceress. He kidnaps her but eventually teams up with her and Balthazar to kill Memnon. He then claims the throne as the Scorpion King and establishes a peaceful rule with the sorceress as his queen. As portrayed by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson in the film The Scorpion King and The Mummy Returns, Mathayus was once a man who knew only death and murder as his purpose in life, but possessed a soft spot for children and women. He was a sarcastic warrior who enjoyed battle and a greatly humorous person during combat and in dangerous situations, perhaps to give him more confidence in his predicaments. He also has a close friendship with his two brothers, and strongly believes in vengeance and honor, frequently quoting an old Akkadian oath: “Live free…die well.” By the time he and his brethren are introduced, they are purportedly the last of the Akkadians during a time of conflict and bloodshed by the conqueror Memnon. They are tasked in assassinating his sorceress but his brothers perish when they are betrayed. He swore revenge when he escapes Memnon's confinement with a horse thief. He inadvertently rescues the sorceress who saves him from certain death on one occasion by a weapon laced with scorpion venom. She claims that should he survive, the blood of the Scorpion shall flow within his veins (hence his title). He later rallies the rebels with Nubian leaders Balthazar and Queen Isis to stand up towards Memnon's tyranny. With Cassandra's help, he ultimately defeats Memnon in defiance of her vision (where he is depicted as perishing). As the rule of the Legendary City Gomorrah, he is crowned king by the denizens of the latter city after the tyrant's death, establishing his kingship and legend as the Scorpion King. However, by the time of The Mummy Returns’ prologue, Mathayus is now a ruthless king and general who is in the process of a massive crusade against the known world. When his forces are defeated after a seven-year-long campaign against the Egyptian capital Thebes, Mathayus finds himself stranded in the vast desert, dying of thirst. Then, in his final moments before dying, the Scorpion King made one last attempt to redeem his honor and defeat his enemies, pledging service to the god Anubis in return for using his invincible Army. This displays Mathayus’ Akkadian sense of justice and warped sense of redemption. He succeeds in redeeming his honor, but his soul is taken by the god to be cursed in his unending service and sealed his soul in limbo underneath the pyramid of the Oasis Kingdom of Ahm Shere, originally created as a sanctuary for him. To break his undying curse, whoever defeats him in fair combat is either granted control of his army of Anubis, and can either command them in battle or return them to the Underworld, an opportunity that Imhotep seeks to exploit in hopes of conquering the world. After five thousand years, the God Anubis grants Mathayus the body of a Scorpion to challenge Imhotep and Rick O'Connell. However, in the skirmish, he is ultimately freed from his curse by Rick O'Connell's bravery when he stabs the Spear of Osiris through him, sending him and Anubis' army back to the Underworld and putting an end to his 5 millennia curse. A new prequel film is scheduled to be released directly to video in the US in August 2008. It concerns a younger Mathayus played by Michael Copon, telling his origins and back-story before becoming an assassin. Dwayne (The Rock) Johnson did not reprise the character, and the film’s villain is named “Sardon.” The Scorpion King character was Dwayne (The Rock) Johnson’s first-ever starring role as a leading man, paving the way for him becoming a modern-day action film celebrity. Reviews for the Scorpion King were mostly negative or mixed, with many critics focusing on the overly stylized concept of history that the film adopted, and the unoriginal, unrealistic story line. However, some, such as noted critic Roger Ebert, sensed potential in Johnson, saying that he had the charisma and coolness to become his own action star in the tradition of action movie actors such as Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone.